Can I Get An Amen?
We had such a beautiful weekend! It’s been in the high 70’s outside, sunny and clear and with the time change it’s light so much longer! We have a nice park at our condo community so Sunday I took Tyler and he had such a blast on the swings and I had a blast just watching him!
I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer. It seems the last two weeks it keeps coming up and then my husband even preached about prayer in church this weekend. I’m thankful for the theme of reminders and instruction about this discipline and I definitely need some practical help.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:18
Each month my wonderful Pastor’s wife, Carlynn, gathers all the staff wives for two hours of fellowship, accountability, dinner, and my favorite part is that she teaches us about the life of a woman in history who embodies a characteristic we commit to working on that month. This month she shared Fern Nichols with us, who started Mom’s In Touch a group of moms who pray for their children and schools. Carlynn challenged each of us to commit to growing in prayer this month.
Then this weekend my husband, Bobby, had the opportunity to preach the main service of our church and his passage (1 Thessalonians 9-13) was about intercessory prayer.
Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again
and supply what is lacking in your faith.1 Thessalonians 3:10
Bobby’s sermon was a strong reminder that I need to be passionate in my prayer on behalf of others. I can’t just have a nice list and read it off to the Lord each day. I need to care deeply for my brothers and sisters in Christ, concern myself with their needs and pray intensely for them. Something he said that really stood out is that I should ask God to make me a part of the answer. I should be eager and willing to be used by Him in any way for the person I’m praying for.
Both of these teaching times came together for two prayer commitments I’ve started this month. One is to extend my focused time of prayer each day by doubling that time. It still doesn’t seem like that long, because sometimes when I sit down to pray in the mornings I feel rushed and then not as purposeful. I don’t want my prayer time to be something I check off a list, but where I set aside concentrated time to pour my heart before the Lord and not be rushing on to other things.
The second is a very practical addition to my prayer time. Each day I pray with a journal that is made up of seven tabbed sections (one for each day) and has pages in it with things I’m praying for that day–mostly Scriptures and names. My husband is the high school pastor at Compass and I serve along side him by ministering to the girls. I love these girls and the ministry we have for them is one of the biggest passions on my heart. I made five new pages for my notebook so I can apply what I learned by interceding day and night for these girls! The pages are broken down by our five mid-week small groups so I can do one each weekday that has the names of each girl who attends that small group listed with a space so I can write next to it. I would like to use a good amount of my extended time to pray specifically for them and their needs.
I’m excited about these two things and always bringing all kinds of prayers before the Lord because He is listening!
March 11th, 2008
AMEN!
March 11th, 2008
It was great that the sermon this weekend was concerning prayer. Ryan and I both struggle with keeping prayer from being a “check the box” activity. We love the Bible study part of quiet time, but prayer can be a struggle. I was just bringing this before Ryan as a prayer request in our Bible study time together this week. Then, voila! The sermon was about prayer–so amazing! I was affected by the point your husband made about being willing to be used in the answer to prayers for another person. I love it! This engages me so powerfully in my prayer for others and my need to really think about their needs. I also loved the focus on the I Thessalonians passage that tells us to thank God for the work he is doing in someone else’s life when we pray for them.
The picture of Tyler is precious! Carter loves the swings too. We go to the park to exercise, but he turns into a swing potato. : )
March 12th, 2008
Hi Christa, I read your blog from time to time, and although we have not ever met, I see you and your family around Compass. I hear about you and even saw you driving in my neighborhood to pick up a high school student. So hi! The next time I see you, I will come up and introduce myself. Anyhow, I too have been challenged to pray more diligently and earnestly on a daily basis. I love the prayer journal that Chiara passed onto me, but my goal is to pray more continually throughout the day. Thanks for posting this reminder!
March 12th, 2008
Hey! I feel the same way about the subject of praying being all around me right now. I bought the book, “Alone with God” by MacArthur and barely got into it when we had our last ministry wives meeting. Also, Dale and I had started really discussing the deep need for prayer amongst the pastoral staff and families. Then, we get to MinWives and Carlynn has us talk about prayer and actually pray together. THEN, Bobby preached on prayer and I was blown out of my seat! Oh my goodness, God, you must be teaching us something here. =-) Anyway, I ditto all that you said in your blog and am enjoying learning more about what prayer is and doing my best, through the Spirit’s prompting, to pray w/o ceasing and each morning, specifically. Love ya!